Kunal Dasgupta, CEO of Multiscreen Media (formerly - Sony (NYSE: SNE) Entertainment Television) spoke about an interesting change of strategy from the film Jab We Met, which helped reduce the impact of piracy.

Films and Home Video Jab We Met was a film that changed rights scenario the theatrical release was followed by a home video release in a week. 8 million DVDs got sold. That’s usually the market that the pirates take up. At the same time, those who wanted to watch it on the screen, watched on the screen. Jab We Met also changed things on the TV front - they sold the TV rights as 1st telecast, 2nd telecast etc, and raised the returns by 1.5 times.
TV 313 TV channels, 80 channels pending with I&B ministry. Who’s going to watch them? Where’s the content coming from? Will there be differentiation? Will there be a shakeout? This is the hottest market to be in. From a content point of view, we are on a roll. It’s interesting to see some new formats emerging - the new types of TV and reality shows - where they’re teaching the viewers how to dance, how further your career, teaches you English. These are going to transform viewership. The area of concern - the ratings system is not yet good enough.
E-Sports E-sports is a huge opportunity. Gamers competing with each other, with commentators, with thousands of live viewers - it’s big in Korea. This brings together interactivity and passilbity in one medium. fantasy cricket and football.
Challenges There’;s going to be a shakepout in the content space - there are many content providers, but no one of size and scale that is able to compete as a global sized company. We haven’t yet seen any Indian TV production co scale up to a size, and take their content to a seriously big scale. We have to figure out how we go multiscreen, how we do HD. I belive we’ll see the first HD broadcast in this country this year.

Note: As a part of our conference coverage of FICCI Frames, we’ll also be reporting on TV, Radio and Films, though our focus shall (as always) be primarily on Digital Media. I’ll be liveblogging as long as both the laptop batteries last.